Is College Football Going To Get Banned?

[Tugg Speedman]

As the BE football and basketball teams argue over money, we get this rash of stories in the last four or five days ....


Why College Football Should Be Banned
The costs are high, the benefits to students are low, argues Buzz Bissinger. And academics pay the price
By BUZZ BISSINGER

Mr. Bissinger is the author of "Friday Night Lights." He will participate in a debate Tuesday evening at New York University, sponsored by Intelligence Squared, in which he and Malcolm Gladwell will argue that college football should be banned.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304743704577382292376194220.html


The bone-shattering truth: U.S. football is doomed
Junior Seau's apparent suicide drives the point home
May 04, 2012|John Kass

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-04/news/ct-met-kass-0504-20120504_1_apparent-suicide-dave-duerson-head-injury


Kurt Warner would prefer his sons not play football
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/05/03/kurt-warner-would-prefer-his-sons-not-play-football/


How many more deaths can NFL fans take?
By SAM MELLINGER

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/02/3589935/how-many-more-deaths-can-nfl-fans.html

[brewcity77]

In this day and age, there are things more important than academics, health, or a long life, and the thing that stands out as most important is the almighty dollar. As long as the BCS can generate hundreds of millions of dollars, college football will continue. Any consequences of that will be written off as acceptable losses.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

In this day and age, there are things more important than academics, health, or a long life, and the thing that stands out as most important is the almighty dollar. As long as the BCS can generate hundreds of millions of dollars, college football will continue. Any consequences of that will be written off as acceptable losses.

If everything that has happened at Penn State isn't proof of this, nothing is.

[GGGG]

Congress will exempt college football from injury related lawsuits long before it is banned.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

Congress will exempt college football from injury related lawsuits long before it is banned.

Possibly -- if it means preventing public institutions from having to dole out hundreds of millions in lawsuit payments.

But I can also see college sports coming under the knife from PC administrators who have always had a bit of a thing for male sports. (Eg. wrestling at Marquette.) Not entirely unreasonably, I'll add.

[Hards Alumni]

But I can also see college sports coming under the knife from PC administrators who have always had a bit of a thing for male sports. (Eg. wrestling at Marquette.) Not entirely unreasonably, I'll add.

It has nothing to do with PC administrators and everything to do with Title IX.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

It has nothing to do with PC administrators and everything to do with Title IX.

Okay, captain obvious, it's PC administrators ruthlessly promoting Title IX.

[brewcity77]

But I can also see college sports coming under the knife from PC administrators who have always had a bit of a thing for male sports. (Eg. wrestling at Marquette.) Not entirely unreasonably, I'll add.

Not football. Never football. Not in this country. It's too inherently American. If you were sitting down to make a list of things this country holds most dear, I have to imagine football would be in the top-ten, if not the top-five. Communities rally around high school teams, states rally around college teams, and the NFL provides unifying bases for not just cities, but entire regions in some cases.

Wal-Mart, Puritanism, Hollywood, McDonald's food, and the NFL...these are the new things America is founded on. That sport will never ever ever come under the knife. It's too important from not only a financial and entertainment perspective, but from a sheer pride perspective. It's uniquely American, we're the only people that play it, and we're the only people that care about it, which makes it that much more important to us. The NFL may want to expand globally, but just like there's little interest for soccer inside the US, there's little interest for the NFL outside it. And because of that it will always be our protected baby.

[Henry Sugar]

Tyler Cowen speculated on what the end of Football would look like. 

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7559458/cte-concussion-crisis-economic-look-end-football

[MUMBA]

it's PC administrators ruthlessly promoting Title IX.

...along with any reasonable person with a daughter, sister, niece, etc that values athletics as part of the educational experience?

[LON]

...along with any reasonable person with a daughter, sister, niece, etc that values athletics as part of the educational experience?

How does one play sports in a kitchen?  I imagine that could get quite dangerous.

/low hanging fruit'd

[GGGG]

But I can also see college sports coming under the knife from PC administrators who have always had a bit of a thing for male sports. (Eg. wrestling at Marquette.) Not entirely unreasonably, I'll add.

It is one thing for athletic departments to get rid of sports with niche audiences (like wrestling), but big time college football is very different. 

[Tugg Speedman]

Just to play devils advocate ...

100 years ago the biggest sport going was boxing.  It remained the top sport for 70 years.  Then the constant complaints about violence and injury got it banned in many places (not Vegas) and now the sport is fraction of what it used to be.

Same thing with Indy car racing, it was really popular until a rash of driver deaths in the 1970s turned off the public.  (NASCAR is popular now precisely because they go out of their way to protect the drivers and NASCAR officials will tell you the sports was almost killed off by Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001.)

More Dave Duerson and Juniour Seau type of incidents, not to mention Eric Legrand, and the public will be constantly bombarded with the idea that football is a brutal savage sport that civilized people do not watch.

I agree Football is going no where NOW.  But a few more of these incidents and it will be as popular as boxing before you know.

Better question, is football's popularity peaking now and soon to begin a gradual slide?

[Hards Alumni]

Okay, captain obvious, it's PC administrators ruthlessly promoting Title IX.

There is no need to promote a law that has been on the books for years.

I don't get it.  Women shouldn't have as many sports options as men?

[Tugg Speedman]

Not football. Never football. Not in this country. It's too inherently American. If you were sitting down to make a list of things this country holds most dear, I have to imagine football would be in the top-ten, if not the top-five. Communities rally around high school teams, states rally around college teams, and the NFL provides unifying bases for not just cities, but entire regions in some cases.

Go back in history and see that 135,000 packed Chicago's Soldier Field in 1927 for the Tunney/Dempsey "long-count fight."  Boxing will never regain that kind of popularity again.

The 1950s was the "golden era" of baseball.  It will never have a golden era like that again.

The 1972 Olympics were the most watch TV event at that time, it broke the record of the 1968 Olympics.  Olympics are no longer a dominant sport in this country.

Professional football did not take hold as a major sport until the 1960s.  It is a relatively new sport.  It is the top of the cycle now.  The question is "for how long?"

[brewcity77]

The difference is that none of those were uniquely American. Certainly not boxing nor the Olympics. Baseball was, but it's become less "our sport" as Americans become a minority to Latin Anerican and Asian imports. Maybe some day, maybe, football will fall, but in a country that has an obsessive, almost god-given feeling of right to be number one, football is the one place where no one else can compete. If that changes, its place in our society may change with it. But I don't expect that in the next 5, 10, or 20 years, and probably not in my lifetime.

[Dawson Rental]

It'll never be banned.  Period.  Anyone who thinks so is deluded.  The only ones who could ban it are Congress, and they want to get reelected too much.  In related news, prohibition is not coming back either.

The escalating commercialization will eventually lead to paying players, and that will make some schools wish that it had been banned.

[GOO]

If we look at football as a bubble, I think we are at the peak.  Not much higher to go if at all, and we know from history that tastes change and sports popularity is always in flux.  Just look at where golf was 10 years ago versus today.  Next step for golf is fewer people are taking it up or paying attention, so the slide continues.

Rule changes to protect players will lesson the game and the enforcement of those rules will mean slowdown in games and many player suspensions.  They probably crack down even more on artificial drugs in an attempt to keep players smaller.

Football will be around for a long time, but my guess is it will be a lot less popular in 20 years than it is today.  The economics will dictate that those that overinvest in it during the bubble will pay a steep economic price.  How many major programs won't be so major in 20 years?

If the TV model changes to go away from cable and networks in the next 20 years, which it may/will, then it could be Hiroshima on football.

[Dawson Rental]

Go back in history and see that 135,000 packed Chicago's Soldier Field in 1927 for the Tunney/Dempsey "long-count fight."  Boxing will never regain that kind of popularity again.

The 1950s was the "golden era" of baseball.  It will never have a golden era like that again.

The 1972 Olympics were the most watch TV event at that time, it broke the record of the 1968 Olympics.  Olympics are no longer a dominant sport in this country.

Professional football did not take hold as a major sport until the 1960s.  It is a relatively new sport.  It is the top of the cycle now.  The question is "for how long?"

The height of the interest in the Olympics was when they were serving as the proxy war between the Communist block and the West during the Cold War.  The end of the Cold War meant the end of the inflated importance of the Olympics.

[Hoopaloop]

There is no need to promote a law that has been on the books for years.

I don't get it.  Women shouldn't have as many sports options as men?

There are many laws on the books for years that our gov't chooses not to enforce.  One was argued in front of the Supreme Court two weeks ago in US vs Arizona.

Women should have the same options as men, but let us not pretend that because a law is on the books there is enforcement of that law. 

[mu03eng]

Go back in history and see that 135,000 packed Chicago's Soldier Field in 1927 for the Tunney/Dempsey "long-count fight."  Boxing will never regain that kind of popularity again.

The 1950s was the "golden era" of baseball.  It will never have a golden era like that again.

The 1972 Olympics were the most watch TV event at that time, it broke the record of the 1968 Olympics.  Olympics are no longer a dominant sport in this country.

Professional football did not take hold as a major sport until the 1960s.  It is a relatively new sport.  It is the top of the cycle now.  The question is "for how long?"

Your dates and knowledge on boxing are way off.  Boxing was very relavent to the national landscape as recently as the 70s(Ali, Frasier, etc), 80s, and early 90s(Tyson, etc).  Its only been in the last 20 years that boxing has fallen apart and I'd argue that is a lot more about the organization and administration of boxing than injuries.  Sure the way Ali is now doesn't help anything but boxing shot themselves in the foot.  Football could do the same thing but injuries won't be the thing that shuts them down.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

There is no need to promote a law that has been on the books for years.

I don't get it.  Women shouldn't have as many sports options as men?

Huh? Why do you think women shouldn't have as many options?

[GGGG]

The height of the interest in the Olympics was when they were serving as the proxy war between the Communist block and the West during the Cold War.  The end of the Cold War meant the end of the inflated importance of the Olympics.

And when there wasn't as many options for televised sports.

[GGGG]

Your dates and knowledge on boxing are way off.  Boxing was very relavent to the national landscape as recently as the 70s(Ali, Frasier, etc), 80s, and early 90s(Tyson, etc).  Its only been in the last 20 years that boxing has fallen apart and I'd argue that is a lot more about the organization and administration of boxing than injuries.  Sure the way Ali is now doesn't help anything but boxing shot themselves in the foot.  Football could do the same thing but injuries won't be the thing that shuts them down.

Right.  They went for the short-term gain of pay per view telecasts at the expense of developing their long-term fan based.

And having a dozen sanctioning bodies with 800 weight classes doesn't help either.

[mu03eng]

And when there wasn't as many options for televised sports.

Right, I mean for god sake perhaps the greatest sporting event in US history was shown on TAPE DELAY.  Think about that in this day and age.